Large enterprise networks often provide remote branch networks access to data center storage. The needs of a data center network, however, cannot be satisfied by traditional Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs). For example, data center networks require lossless, low-latency communication, which traditional LANs and WANs cannot provide. In contrast, the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol can provide the lossless, low-latency communication required by data center networks. As a result, enterprises often supply remote access to FCoE data centers, thereby creating virtualized storage environments with reduced total cost of ownership.
FCoE, however, is restricted to Layer 2 Ethernet environments. As a result, FCoE cannot be used to provide WAN access to data center storage. In contrast, the Internet Small computer System Interface (iSCSI) protocol uses the TCP/IP protocol as a transport mechanism, and therefore is capable of providing WAN connectivity. As a result, iSCSI can be used to provide WAN connectivity to data center storage. To provide iSCSI access to a data center network which uses FCoE, however, would require using either two network interfaces or a dual stack (one for iSCSI and one for FCoE). Such solutions are expensive and tedious to implement.
What is needed, therefore, is a method for connecting remote branch networks to storage within the centralized data center network, while maintaining a low total cost of ownership.